{"id":282,"date":"2016-06-28T20:08:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T20:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/?p=282"},"modified":"2022-05-28T16:36:58","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T20:36:58","slug":"autism-study-tracking-eye-movement-uses-matlab-to-find-possible-cause-of-sensory-overload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/2016\/06\/28\/autism-study-tracking-eye-movement-uses-matlab-to-find-possible-cause-of-sensory-overload\/","title":{"rendered":"Autism study tracking eye movement uses MATLAB to find possible cause of sensory overload"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autism is a global concern. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states\u00a0the current prevalence of autism<\/a>\u00a0is 1 in 68 children in the US. It is estimated that 1 percent of the world population<\/a> has autism spectrum disorder (ASD).<\/p>\n

In addition to social issues and communication challenges, many of people with ASD have\u00a0difficulty with sensory integration<\/a> and suffer from sensory overload. Sensory overload symptoms can vary widely, from visual distraction\u00a0to tactile issues. Some experience everyday sounds in the environment as a disturbing cacophony of noise.<\/p>\n

Too much information (TMI)<\/span> <\/h2><\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Forbes\u2019<\/em> article Experience What It Feels Like To Have Autism<\/a><\/u> contained video examples that provide a glimpse into sensory overload and the anxiety it can create. The \u201cTMI\u201d video shown below was created by the UK\u2019s National Autistic Society.<\/a>\u00a0It shows the sensory overload experienced by\u00a0a young boy\u00a0when he accompanies his mother to a mall. The video has been viewed more than 4 million times since April.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t see the forest for the trees?<\/span><\/h2><\/strong><\/p>\n

People with ASD often focus on details, ignoring the bigger picture. For example, children with ASD may exhibit extreme focus on a part of a toy such as the wheels on a toy car or the spinning rotor of a toy helicopter, but fail to use it in \u201cpretend\u201d play such as driving or flying.<\/p>\n

It has long been thought that these children excel at \u201clocal processing\u201d, which requires focusing fine detail. When it comes to \u201cglobal processing\u201d, or looking at the overall context of their environment, they struggle.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to better understand visual processing in children with ASD, researchers from the University of Auckland, together with autism researchers from University College, London, developed a methodology that separates global processing ability from local processing skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time we now have a way of separating these two functions in the lab,\u201d says Professor Dakin<\/a> who leads the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Auckland. \u201cWhen we apply it to children with autism, we find they don\u2019t have a global processing problem at all. If anything, they are better at global processing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The study<\/a> found that people with ASD do have a strong attention to detail. But that didn\u2019t mean they were missing the big picture: In fact, they were pooling too many details. They see the big picture but can\u2019t ignore irrelevant information. The excess of details is likely contributing to the sensory overload. They suffer from TMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir sensory overload is an inability to resist the irrelevant,\u201d says Professor Dakin. \u201cIf anything, you could almost think of that as more integration \u2013 the exact opposite of what people have thought. Our work shows that integration is fine in people with autism, they just can\u2019t ignore noise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

MATLAB <\/a>provided a single platform for this study. It enabled accurate presentation of dynamic visual stimuli, interspersed with engaging cartoon content, and real-time control of lab equipment including eye trackers to monitor where children looked. It was also used to develop models of the expected performance.<\/p>\n

In addition to understanding ASD, the vision monitoring program could eventually be used to help diagnose ASD. It could also help teach kids ways to improve their social behavior, such as where they should look during a conversation.<\/p>\n

VR: Experience sensory overload for yourself<\/span> <\/h2><\/strong><\/p>\n

If this has you wondering how sensory overload feels, the TMI video is now available in a virtual reality experience. With cardboard goggles and a smartphone, you can experience sensory overload from the boy\u2019s perspective. You can order goggles and download the app from this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Autism is a global concern. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states\u00a0the current prevalence of autism\u00a0is 1 in 68 children in the US. It is estimated that 1 percent of the world population has… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3581,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/3581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}